Warren Photograph Collection - Finding Aid

Abstract
Copyright
Biographical Information
Scope and Content of the Collection
Arrangement of the Collection

Collection Number

1999.06

Contact Information

The Library, Special Collections
Humboldt State University
Arcata, California 95521
URL: http://library.humboldt.edu/humco/holdings/warren.htm

Processed By

Joan Berman

Date Collection Processed

2002-2007

Language

English

Collection Creator

Walter J. Warren (1912-1996)

Dates Covered by Collection

1890s-1950s (date span)
1910-1940 (bulk dates)

Size of Collection

3 cubic feet; approximately 500 items

Abstract

The Warren Photograph Collection provides a visual history of the lumber company town of Crannell (known as Bulwinkle prior to 1922) and the Little River Redwood Company (LRRC).  LRRC purchased the Vance Redwood Mill in 1900 and merged with Hammond Lumber Company in 1931; these companies are also represented in this collection.

Access

The collection is open for research.

Copyright

Copyright has not been assigned to Humboldt State University. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce in any format, please contact the Special Collections Librarian.

Acquisition Information

Walter Warren donated the collection to Humboldt State University Library in 1994.

Biographical Information

Walter J. Warren was born in Eureka in 1912, one of three sons of parents who emigrated from Croatia.  He lived with his family in Bulwinkle/Crannell from 1914 until 1926 when the family moved to Arcata and Walter started high school.  A one year business course at Humboldt State started him on his career in insurance and accounting.  He retired from Warren, Starkey and Gray Insurance Agency in 1980 as a long time civic and business leader in Humboldt County.  Some of his activities included board membership of Humboldt Federal Savings & Loan Association, Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, Arcata Rotary Club and Arcata Chamber of Commerce; he was also secretary of Reclamation District No. 768 for many years.  Warren's major hobby was collecting and restoring old logging steam locomotives.  His photograph collection reflects that early experience and continuing life interest until his death in 1996.  Two of the Warren family homes are now part of the Humboldt State University campus.

Scope and Content of the Collection

The Warren Photograph Collection provides a visual history of the lumber company town of Crannell (known as Bulwinkle prior to 1922) and the Little River Redwood Company (LRRC).  LRRC purchased the Vance Redwood Mill in 1900 and merged with Hammond Lumber Company in 1931; these companies are also represented in this collection that was gifted to the HSU Library in 1994 by Walter J. Warren. 

Crannell flourished during the 1920s.  Two major fires, in 1908 and 1945, frame the beginning and the decline of this company town.  The 1908 fire at Luffenholtz followed logging by Hammond Lumber Company and devastated the area from Little River to Trinidad, although it spared the newly built LRRC mill at Bulwinkle. The fire in 1945 destroyed the system of railroad trestles and marked the transition to hauling logs by truck.  In 1947 Hammond shifted its focus of activity from Crannell to Big Lagoon.  The last vestiges of Crannell were obliterated in 1969 by Georgia Pacific who acquired Hammond in 1956.

The collection consists of approximately 500 photographs, samples of promotional materials produced by and/or used by LRRC in the 1920s, three presentation albums, and four rolled panoramas.  Photohistorian Peter Palmquist's review of the collection in December 1993 for the donor includes this description:

"The photographs date between c.1910 and c.1940.  While most of the prints lack a photographer's stamp, there are representative numbers by S.U. Bunnell, A.W. Ericson, Freeman Art Company, Jesse Meiser, Seely Brothers and Dold & Dold.  Most of the photographs are of a standard commercial quality.  The physical condition of the photographs average very good.  Subject content centers on the Little River Redwood Company and the adjacent town of Crannell (a company town).  There are views of townsites, company housing, mill overviews, logging sites, dry kilns, saw shop, logging trains, caterpiller tractors at work, ship and harbor views, employee groups, loggers and lumbermen at work and play, etc."

Seventy five of the photographs in this collection were selected to be digitized as part of a grant project through the California State Library (2005-06).    

Arrangement of the Collection

Copy prints of a representative sample of the collection (89 items) were made for the donor, at his request, during the acquisition of the collection; this action disturbed any original collection order that may have existed.  During processing of the collection in 2002 and 2005, the photographs were organized and arranged in part by date, to further the understanding of this company over time and to provide a basis for correlation with related collections.  Further groupings are by general subject matter and/or photographer.  There is an extensive sequence of photographs by Dold & Dold ca.1924 with identifying titles.  Another group of Dold & Dold photographs ca.1930 corresponds to a series of 18 postcards located at the Trinidad Museum which are reproduced and described in the Summer 2004 issue of their Newsletter as coming from Katie Boyle.

The collection is arranged in four series.  The photographs series is further grouped by date in three sub series; this is followed by panoramas and promotional redwood photos, promotional publications, and presentation albums.

For the 75 photographs selected to be digitized, full metadata was assigned: these images are available through the California Digital Library/Online Archive of California and its image search interface Calisphere.

Related Collections at the Humboldt State University Library

Related Humboldt Room collections include: Balke Collection; Katie Boyle Photograph Collection; Lumber Company Map Collection; and Partain Photograph Collection.  Noteworthy items in the Balke Collection are the minutes of the Crannell Woman's Club (1920-1928) and the Affidavits of Registration (1912, 1914, 1922, 1926, 1944, and 1946).  These document different aspects of the town, complementing the picture presented by the Warren Collection photographs. Many of the Dold & Dold photographs are also included in the Katie Boyle Photograph Collection where they are more fully identified; some of these are also published in Redwood Lumber Industry by Lynwood Carranco. 

Container List

Series: Photographs  

Sub series: Early years, Beginning of the Little River Redwood Company, Bulwinkle

Box 1

Sub series: Thriving years of Little River Redwood Company, Bulwinkle becomes Crannell

Sub series:  Miscellaneous

Series: Panoramas and promotional redwood photos

Box 2

Box  3

Series: Promotional publications

Box 4

Series:  Presentation albums

Box 5

Box 6

Bibliography

Abbott, Arthur G.  Luffenholtz: Memories of Big Fire.  Humboldt Historian 33:1, January-February 1985, pp.17-19.

Allen, James B.  The Company Town in the American West.  University of Oklahoma Press,

Carranco, Lynwood.  Redwood Lumber Industry, San Marino, CA: Golden West Books, 1982.

Carranco, Lynwood, and Henry L. Sorensen.  Steam in the Redwoods.  Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, Ltd, 1988, especially pp. 52-69.

Coyne, Bonnie.  Town No More.  Pacifica, July 1971, pp. 11-15.

Mengel, Lowell S.  Canadians in the Redwoods: the Little River Redwood Company.  Humboldt Historian, May-June 1976, pp.13-14.

Newsletter of the TrinidadMuseum Society.  The Winter (April, May, June) 2004 and Summer (June, July, August) 2004 issues have several relevant articles, including the one about the 1930 postcard set of Little River Redwood Co. in the Summer 2004 issue.

The WhistlePunk, Newsletter of the Timber Heritage Association, April 2006.  This issue contains at least two articles of interest, one on page 3 describing a donation of the Miscellaneous Document files from the Little River Redwood Company which were used in part as source for the lengthy, very informative article on pages 4-6, The Little River Redwood Co.

Subject Headings

Humboldt County
Crannell
Little River Redwood Company
Company towns
Lumbering
Forests and forestry

Send comments and suggestions about this page to: Joan Berman
Last Updated: February 7, 2007
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